My business area now includes Fort Lauderdale. I am happier than a pig in slop. I can be at the Mai Kai almost every month. Funny how one of my visits will also be timed with next Hukilau. Purely coincidental I assure you.

Wow...that is one tall guy there...thanks for the pic, I always love how tikis try to hide in the fauna...even that guy is trying. He looks kinda shy, but not afraid to side by a towering palm. _________________ "Oh waiter, another cocktail please!!!"

Pablus, sorry you missed "Take 5" this year. I truly enjoyed your rum soaked interviews and hope to join you for the October event. Thanks for causing the rousing debates. Do you have a specific date set? I look forward to being on the front row...I'll hold your drink while you play.

If you coat wood tikis in fiberglass resin, then put them in an autoclave (high pressure heated chamber) then top coat them once a year with polyurethane, they will last forever even in Florida weather. It would be cheaper than casting or recarving. Even slightly rotted tikis could be preserved this way.

Thanks for the greeting Vampiress and BenZ! As you can see from the date of my TC membership and the number of postings since I've been remiss in that department (job related time thing!) Hopefully I'll be more active now. BenZ: I still haven't finished my carving from Coontiki yet...he's looking more like a kindly old jewish guy..I gotta send you a pic, you'll bust a gut...Jennifer named him Moari Fishkind. Maybe I should add some color?! Thank goodness I have your original carving. It's in a place of honor in our tiki hut. (where's my pic Swanky??)
Giving Jennifer her due here's a pic that goes with my previous posting from the 03 Hukilau..haven't missed one since.

I had an interesting conversation with wplugger about one of the molds from the Mai Kai. He picked up a mold and inside the mold was newspaper (being used as as shim or cushion). He didn't think much about it till he was done removing the paper from the mold. It essentially disintegrated as he was removing it and just tossed it to the side. After a minute or two he went back to the paper to see if it was dated. It was!! The paper was dated some time in 1956 - the same year that the Mai Kai opened!!! The big question we had was - did the original purchase of the tikis come with a mold? Was this common practice for such a large order (there are around 75+/- molds in storage)? Can anyone answer this or do a little urban archeology on this subject. Orignally Will and I thought the molds were made in the 70's - however the presence of this newspaper has changed everything.

Well I'll be. It's good ol' Jungle Jim. How've you been? Good to see the photos you posted and to hear you are havin' a good tiki time down there in FL. Get busy and finish your Coon tiki Benzart assignment !!!!! Have you ever looked at the thread containing all of the pictures from the carving seminar? Good stuff. Say hi to Tony for me OK? Your friend, 8FT Tiki

Some of the local ohana gathered at Will's place to 'decorate' some of the new Tikis for the Mai-Kai. Of course we all were excited by the invitation because who among us does not want to walk through the gardens and point at one of the Tikis and say "I painted that one!"

Nice job gang! You're giving a lot of those a good bit of texture and depth with the way you're applying the paint and they look really good. I had no idea there were this many different carvings once on the Mai-Kai grounds. Amazing.

On 2007-11-01 10:48, pablus wrote:....Can't wait to see them in place, with a drink in my hand, and lots of time to stroll, and a drink in my other hand.

Pablus, you will be pleased to know that we are converting the spare bathroom into a genetic lab (long story, I'll share sometime over Mai-Tais...) and the first major project is a retractable third arm so you can carry a drink in one hand, carry a drink in the other hand, and still have one hand free to hold a drink.

I'll keep you posted on our progress.

The first experiment on a monkey worked really well. At least until the little bugger figured out he could climb the cage and fling poo at the same time....